The Use of Consultation to Improve Academic and Psychosocial Outcomes for Gifted Students

Abstract

School psychologists can make use of consultation within a prevention and wellness framework to heighten gifted students ' academic, social, mental health, and life competencies. The triadic and indirect nature of consultation allows school-based consultants the opportunity to support a larger population of students than they could with traditional direct intervention. Consultation holds potential to enhance the capacity of parents, teachers, and administrators to problem-solve by pinpointing critical information and then jointly considering multiple views about well-being, development, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness appropriate to the consultee's work setting. The purpose of this article is to present conceptualizations of giftedness and describe the congruence between the philosophy and aims of consultation and the challenges and attributes associated with gifted students. In addition, illustrations of the use of consultation at the classroom and systems level are presented.What do school psychologists have to offer gifted students, parents, and teachers besides psychoeducational assessment? The purpose of this article is to discuss how psychologists can use consultation to extend their professional roles beyond testing by enhancing the abilities of care providers and adopting a prevention and wellness perspective to heighten gifted students' academic, social, mental health, and life competencies. School-based consultation has been shown to be effective for these types of outcomes across a range of students and families and has the potential to provide

High-Ability Students: New Ways to Conceptualize Giftedness and Provide Psychological Services in the Schools

“…Knotek, Kovac, and Bostwick (2011) propose examining consultation with a new lens in light of the National Association of School Psychologists Blueprint III (Ysseldyke et al, 2006). In particular, the authors discuss consultation in terms of how school psychologists can be effective on both a systems and individual level.…”

Curriculum and instruction for the gifted: The role of school psychologists

“…Others have also addressed the consultant role in the realm of gifted education and offered examples of ways that the school psychologist can support gifted students. As many states and schools enact gifted education through resource rooms, where a gifted students leaves the general education classroom for a portion of the instruction day or school week, this model may present logistical challenges for both general and gifted educators to navigate (Knoteck et al, 2011). Accordingly, the school psychologist may need to consult with the teacher of gifted and the general education teacher to identify how to best integrate services for gifted learners in these two settings in the least disruptive, most positive way for the student.…”

“…The school psychologist may also function as an administrative consultant (Worrell, 2007) at various levels in support of various aspects of gifted education. For example, the school psychologist may work at a systems-level to promote universal instructional goals, such as district-wide implementation of differentiation, or on an intensive level to help a district support the education and psychosocial needs of diverse populations of gifted learners (Knoteck et al, 2011).…”

“…The role of the school psychologist in advocating for the appropriate identification, services, and supports for students who are gifted and talented has expanded during the last decade (Knoteck et al, 2011). With this expansion of roles, school psychologists have the opportunity to apply their expertize in assessment and identification to consulting with school systems and educators in ensuring students who are gifted and talented receive appropriate learning experiences that cultivate students' emerging talent or domain-specific talents.…”

“…We discuss how school psychologists can advocate for appropriate instruction for students who are gifted and talented, including acceleration, enrichment, and ability grouping. In keeping with the expanded role of psychological services (National Association of School Psychologists, 2019), we also discuss how school psychologists can work with classroom teachers to promote academic and cognitive development and cultivate wellness among students who are gifted and talented (Knoteck et al, 2011). Finally, we provide recommendations for professional learning for school psychologists to support their continued development in gifted and talented education.…”